Agriculture & Conservation Assistant

Chronic underdevelopment in Uganda is a problem not easily solved. Remote rural living, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a subsistence economy, loss of hope, and lack of services helps to keep many families dependent upon hand-outs, malnourished, and uneducated. Currently, there are few real ways to generate funds at the village level to support anything other than subsistence living. Therefore, The Real Uganda has developed relationships with local communities to help provide start-up funds, knowledge, and motivation all necessary to solve their respective problems in a sustainable way.

About the Program

Do you like working outdoors and getting your hands dirty? Interested in seeing the impact of climate change in the tropics? Come volunteer at a local farm and help a community achieve food security and environmental sustainability.

Volunteers work along side Ugandans digging and maintaining demonstration gardens to promote better nutrition, efficient use of land, natural pest control, soil conservation, and income generation. Depending on the season, volunteers prepare soil, plant, weed, chase pests, or harvest crops. Volunteers are given basic training and appropriate tools upon arrival, but bring gloves, a hat, and rubber boots if you wish. This project requires working in the sun.

Volunteers are given a private room and meals in the family home of the host organization’s director. Electricity is intermittent and there is no running water. The farm is walking distance from home.

The farm produces food to feed the students of it's small primary school. Volunteers are invited to teach about environmental conservation or farming practices there. Volunteers may also just want to relax and have some fun with the kids. Sport, arts and crafts, and cultural exchange activities are highly encouraged.  

Activities

Volunteers in the Agriculture & Conservation Assistant program join in on the work of their host organization.

Volunteer activities may include a combination of the following seasonal activities:

• land clearing and soil preparation;
• planting maize, beans, fruit trees, and vegetables;
• weeding gardens;
• chasing pests; and
• harvesting crops.

Volunteers are given basic training and appropriate tools upon arrival.

Uganda is a beautiful, peaceful, fun and very welcoming country. Volunteers can easily meet up on weekends to travel. Popular tourist activities in Uganda include wildlife safari, white water rafting and bungee jumping on the River Nile, chimpanzee and gorilla tracking, nature walks and forest hikes. Volunteers are encouraged to see as much of the country as possible. Volunteers are provided with assistance in setting up tourist activities either before or after arrival.
The Real Uganda also encourages volunteers to visit each other at their respective program placements. We find volunteers learn more about grassroots development, locally led initiatives and themselves, the more they see and do while in Uganda. All volunteers are provided with contact information for each other before and after arrival.